


Simmer Time

by Missy



Category: Laverne & Shirley (TV)
Genre: Aftermath, Humor, Light Angst, Multi, Tentative Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:20:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25176814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: After the high of the encounter wears off, the guys and gals of Knapp Street have to figure out where their newfound romantic and sexual relationships stand.(A Sequel to Futsin's Out of the Closet)
Relationships: Laverne DeFazio/Lenny Kosnowski, Laverne DeFazio/Lenny Kosnowski/Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman/Shirley Feeney, Laverne DeFazio/Shirley Feeney, Lenny Kosnowski/Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman
Comments: 10
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Futsin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Futsin/gifts).



Laverne DeFazio could handle a lot of things with pride, grace and dignity. Her father trying to marry her off to a cheese magnate? Absolutely. Spending an afternoon with Rosie Greenbaum without strangling her? Maybe.

Facing down Lenny and Squiggy after having an orgy with them? That was a new one.

It helped that the boys looked about as nervous as she felt, sitting there dressed in their work uniforms, poking at their lunches, with Shirley off spending her lunch hour with Carmine having a Serious Discussion About The Future of Their Relationship. They were playing with their milk straws, staring at their knees. When Lenny snuck her a quick look it was so lovesick she felt a little guilty. She loved him, but did she love him enough to give Shirley up? Did she even need to, if the boys had their own thing? Then again, Lenny had been pretending Squiggy was her, which was kind of mean to Squiggy in its own way. She didn’t know how they felt – only that she needed to clear the air, having engineered this mess.

“Squig? Can you go get me an apple out of the vending machine?”she asked.

“What do I look like?” he asked. “Thieves the butler?”

“I’ll pay you fifty cents.” She thought about offering a blowjob, but they were in public, and even she wasn’t so bold as to be so forthwith.

He grumbled and got to his feet.

Lenny slid right up under the table and to the chair beside her when he got up. “I knew you wanted to be alone,” he said. She smiled at his boldness. “So uh…how’re things with you and Shirl?”

“Weird. I mean, she’d been saving herself for so long and then doing it with Squiggy was…well, it wasn’t what she was expecting. We’re not doing it as much, she’ll probably do it with Carmine but dunno –I don’t want her to do it with him if she don’t want to really do it, y’know? If it’s just something she thinks she owes him then it. Why did I just say ‘doing it’ twenty times? And why am I unloading all of this on you, anyway?”

“Because you like me,” Lenny teased. 

She rolled her eyes. “Len…”

“As more than a friend. Which is something, ‘cause I don’t even think Squig likes me that much.” He nudged her. “So when we going out on a date, huh? A real one, where I actually get to take you somewhere nice and you ain’t lying to your Pop that I’m just your friend?”

Laverne let out a deep sigh. “Pick me up on Friday.”

He grinned and kissed her cheek. “Thanks. I uh…what I said when I..yeah.” He started sucking on his milk.

“How’s Squig been taking it?” Laverne asked.

“I dunno. If it was important to Shirl, I think it made Squig fall more in love with her,” Lenny said. “He’s been like a little puppy barking at the dumbrwaiter all week.” 

“Love?” Squiggy declared, returning to the table. “Andrew Squiggman doesn’t FALL in love! He pillages weak dames!”

“At ease, captain,” Laverne said, making Lenny howl. 

“Shut up!” Squiggy demanded, pounding his fist against the table. “Or I’ll tell her about that thing you do with anchovy paste!”

Lenny shrunk behind the table, making Laverne wonder what he did with the stuff. Should she ask him…? No, she’d let it be a mystery. 

“I’m gonna go see if I can find Shirl,” Laverne said. “We’ve gotta do a little bit of talking.” And it was likely that Carmine had been impossible, because Carmine was always impossible, but especially when she had something unpleasant to tell him. 

It was fine for Carmine to sleep with widows and divorcees for cash, but heaven forbid Shirley step out on him a little. 

Waiting for her best friend on the line, Shirley arrived with a blotchy face and watery blue eyes. She couldn’t make herself look at Laverne. They sat screwing caps down in silence.

And Laverne was aware, the entire time, that the silence between them was her fault.


	2. Chapter 2

Laverne ran to the beer truck, her bowling bag at her side and her coat thrown over her shoulder. “Hello,” she said to Lenny, who looked remarkably well-dressed, even though he hadn’t done much more than remove his coveralls, take a shower and slick his hair back before coming to meet her. She pecked his cheek and settled beside her, slamming the door shut.

“How’s Shirl?” Lenny asked automatically as Laverne buckled her lap belt. 

“On day six of giving me the silent treatment,” Laverne confessed. And she had no way to breach this aching silence between them, not with her words or with her intent. Her best friend had taken whatever Carmine had to say to her hard, and Laverne was determined in her own way to get through to the big lug before he ruined everything for the both of them. 

“I’m sorry,” Lenny said. He kissed the back of her hand and Laverne’s stomach fluttered. She’d stopped asking questions about her attraction to him. He was her type, true – tall and blond, though not muscular. Maybe they’d work best if she stopped examining every single thing that went right or wrong with them and just went with the flow. 

Lenny turned the keys in the ignition. “I’ll pay for the pizza this time.”

“But don’t tomatoes make your tongue swell up?”

“Yeah,” he said. “But it’s worth swelling up if I get to be with you.”

“Oh, Len.” What could a person say when a guy was mooning at you that way? Laverne barely had the vocabulary. She almost told him he was being a big dope.

He just shrugged and kept driving.

By the time they got to the Pizza Bowl, she’d have to pry his hand out of the ball he’d brought with him. Sucking on his fingertip, he followed her into the restaurant, and grabbed her shoulder as they crossed the threshold.

“Carmine, six o’clock and five inches!”

“I’ve heard it’s bigger than that,” she hissed, and Lenny made a face. She wished he’d be more receptive to her teasing, but she knew he didn’t have the confidence – not yet, perhaps not ever. She petted the back of his hand and he stuck his jaw out as he maneuvered himself toward a table.

“I’ll order dinner. You wanna talk to him?”

She caught sight of Carmine – and the little blonde number he was out with, a sure thing, though not on the level of her friend and everyone else’s Ready Betty Wazaluski. “Yeah, I have to. Shirley’s miserable and she’s mad at me, and I ain’t gonna keep living like that.”

Lenny nodded. He tried to look casual while he waved down Mary behind the counter. Laverne, meanwhile, marched over to Carmine.

“Hey,” she said politely to the girl, who gave Laverne a snarl that would have made a Purple Fiend wet their pants. “We’ve gonna talk,” she said to Carmine.

“I’m in the middle of something,” Carmine growled at her.

Her fingertips tightened on Carmine’s shoulder. _”Now,”_ she demanded.

He gave the girl an apologetic smile, seconds before Laverne dragged him out the front door and to the hopeful privacy of the side alley.


	3. Chapter 3

Carmine yanked himself out of Laverne’s grip and squared his squat little form, shooting her the evil eye. “What the hell’re you up to?” he asked.

“What do you think?” she asked. “I’ve seen how you’ve been to Shirl since you heard what she and Squiggy did…”

“You knew?” his eyes narrowed. “Of course you knew. You girls share everything.” The emphasis he put on the final word made her ball her fist up.

“Carmine,” she said flatly. “Did you write ‘property of Carmine Ragusa’ somewhere on Shirl’s body when you left your last date with her?”

“No,” he said. “But we made a promise. You know how many cold showers that woman put me through?”

“You had an ‘understanding’ that you were allowed to see other people. And YOU picked being with other girls who’d put out,” Laverne said. “So why shouldn’t Shirl have the chance to be with other guys who’ll do favors for her?”

“Because I’d take care of her! That shoulda been me!”

Well, that was the problem laid out bare before them. Then again, Carmine had never been one to lie about his desires. “Maybe she didn’t pick you for a reason. Ever think of that?” Laverne knew that her own impulsiveness was to blame – it had dragged them into this mess – but then again, Squiggy had treated her with more respect than she’d thought him capable of. 

“But you didn’t like her enough to wait for her.” The statement made Carmine’s shoulders pinch and his posture hunch. “Why’re the rules different for guys, Carmine? Why do you get to be with all the Luciles you can find, but Shirl’s gotta wait for Mr. Right? Somehow that don’t make the way you feel about her different – why does it change things for her?”

Sadness colored Carmine’s expression. He looked down at his own feet. “You don’t know what it’s like. Everyone’s gonna talk about her now. About us. You think I can stand up against everyone saying dirty things about her, knowing they’re true? Knowing she’s the kind of bimbo who’d sleep with Squiggy. We both know what kinda girls that man draws in!”

“I don’t think she’s a bimbo, Carmine. Do you?” He snarled. Laverne glared at him, shook her head. “Just what I thought. You’re a squat little disappointment. If you were any kinda man you’d call her up and take her out, no strings, just like me and Len are doing right now. Then you take her to bed, then you show her how much you love her. You don’t turn her out the second you find out she’s not 100 percent pure.”

Carmine’s dark eyes showed pure malevolence. “What do I care if you’re disappointed in me? You’re a dyke. You both are!” 

Laverne was only aware that she’d punched Carmine in the face when she felt her knuckles crack from the strain of hitting bone – and then when she felt Lenny dragging her off of him, before her Pop could see and before he could throw Carmine out of the Pizza Bowl for the rest of his miserable life.


End file.
